As part of Mobility Week 2011, Dublin City Council staged a Living Streets festival around the Dame Court area of the city. The festival closed the street to traffic for the day and reimagined how the space could be used in a living streets context. The living street was adorned with grass, trees and a variety of stalls. The main event took place later in the day when an evening of film was brought to the audience thanks to the pedal-powered cinema!

Dublin City Council recently adopted a longer-term strategy for the expansion of the dublinbikes scheme. As part of the expansion process Dublin City Council are seeking the thoughts and opinions of dublinbikes users and members of the public on the dublinbikes scheme. Many thanks for taking the time to complete this survey, your feedback and suggestions are very important to the dublinbikes scheme and its future expansion. By completing this survey you will be entered into a prize draw for an iPad.

On Sunday 11th September, some 8,500 people took to the streets of Dublin on two wheels for the first ever Sky Ride Dublin, making it the largest group cycling event that Ireland has ever seen. Lord Mayor of Dublin Andrew Montague officially opened the event, joined by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, the Sky Ride Dublin ambassadors Nicky Byrne of Westlife and stylist Lisa Fitzpatrick, and Team Sky pro cyclist Russell Downing.

Almost 8km of Dublin’s streets were closed to cars, giving people of all ages and abilities a unique chance to ride their bikes freely around the city centre with no traffic. The free event, hosted by Sky in partnership with Dublin City Council, allowed riders to take in the route at their own pace whilst enjoying some well-known landmarks including Merrion Square, the Pepper Canister Church, Grand Canal Square, Samuel Beckett Bridge, the National Convention Centre, and the Custom House. Participants were treated to a whole host of activities and entertainment throughout the day along the route, with performances from local buskers, demonstrations by RampRage BMXers, and the Sky 3D ‘outdoor living room’ experience.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin Andrew Montague said: “Dublin prides itself on being a cycle friendly city, but rarely do we see so many cyclists together as we’ve seen today at Sky Ride. Well done to everyone involved here today.”An Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: “I’m happy to come along and see so many people participate in this event. The benefits are obvious – for young people in a city, there’s learning how to cycle in a group with no traffic and for families it’s an opportunity for good healthy exercise. I’m all for that!”

Sky Ride Ambassador Nicky Byrne commented: “It’s been a fantastic day here at Sky Ride Dublin with people of all ages getting back on their bikes and enjoying cycling around on traffic-free streets. I hope that all 8,500 people that have taken part today will be inspired to start cycling more regularly and continue to have fun on two wheels.”

The final quote of the day comes from one of the younger participants of the day, 8 year old Mr Flor Holden, who commented that the Sky Ride was the second best day of his life! Although we just missed out on the top spot, this is high praise indeed, and is what the Sky Ride family event is all about.

We are pleased to announce the recent installation of a Cycle Counter at Grove Road, which was officially launched by the Lord Mayor Andrew Montague on 20th September 2010. The counter displays the number of cyclists that have passed by that day and also gives the cumulative total number of cyclists that have passed since the launch. The data is obtained by nearby detector loops, located in the ground under the cycle lanes, and then passed on to the counters. This information is very useful for traffic planning and pays recognition to the fact that “if it isn’t counted, it doesn’t count”.